ANALYSIS — Donald Trump on Tuesday faced no tough questions from a former White House aide and an arena of loyalists, vowing to overhaul the global trade system hours after taking office and contradicting law enforcement officials about a second assassination attempt.
Trump was in Flint, Mich., for a campaign stop two days after a 58-year-old suspected gunman was fired at by a U.S. Secret Service agent then captured by Florida law enforcement officers in what the FBI called a second attempted assassination of Trump in three months.
One of the most telling moments Tuesday came early when Trump told the audience that Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, had called him to check in following the assassination attempt. “It was very nice. And we appreciate that,” Trump said.
But the crowd of his loyalists booed loudly. “No, no,” the GOP presidential nominee said, unsuccessfully trying to quiet them amid some bipartisan calls for cooler political rhetoric.
The suspected gunman, Ryan Routh, who voted for Trump in 2016 before becoming disappointed by his choice, was charged Monday with two federal gun crimes, and additional charges could be added. Trump on Monday blamed the attempted attack with an assault rifle fitted with a scope on Harris, other Democrats and prosecutors who have charged him with a variety of crimes.
Democrats, however, have countered this week that Trump also needs to tone down his often-sharp rhetoric. To be sure, the former president has for nearly a decade, since becoming a politician in 2015, espoused violent rhetoric, made inflammatory comments about his political rivals and migrants, and was determined by the bipartisan House Jan. 6 committee to have “lit the fire” that sparked the Capitol insurrection.
An average of recent polling data crunched by RealClearPolitics gave Trump a narrow 0.7 percentage point lead in Michigan. He is slated to be back in North Carolina on Friday evening, where RealClear’s metric gave him a razor-thin 0.4 point advantage.
“Questions are being asked about Secret Service coverage for the candidate, which Republicans say does not reflect the risks Trump faces,” Giles Alston, an Oxford Analytica analyst, wrote in a Tuesday brief. “The two incidents also raise queries about Republican readiness to replace Trump were this to become necessary and, more broadly, whether the political movement that Trump has created could survive his absence.”
The town hall was a friendly environment for Trump, hosted by his former White House press secretary, now-Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. Earlier Tuesday, she posted an Instagram story saying she was there to “root on” Trump, later joining in one standing ovation. Here are four takeaways from Trump’s latest prime-time appearance.
‘We have to win’
Harris in last week’s lone planned debate with Trump contended he only cares about himself, but on Tuesday Sanders asked why he wants to be president again. His answer was all about voters, in a twist.
“Basically, it’s very simple, you’ll see it at the [southern] border immediately. We’re going to drill baby, drill. Get your energy prices down,” he said to applause.
“We’re going to get rid of that big lump of inflation that this administration has given us,” Trump said.
“We’re going to win. We have to win,” he added. “And we’re going to make America great again.”
Notably, he did not mention going after his political critics and legal foes, as he has done recently in public comments and social media posts.
‘Prison sentences’
That was a contrast to a social media post his Truth Social account fired off seven hours earlier. Trump again suggested he would, if elected, lock up his enemies.
“WHEN I WIN, those people that CHEATED will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the Law, which will include long term prison sentences so that this Depravity of Justice does not happen again. We cannot let our Country further devolve into a Third World Nation, AND WE WON’T!” he wrote on Truth Social.
“Please beware that this legal exposure extends to Lawyers, Political Operatives, Donors, Illegal Voters, & Corrupt Election Officials. Those involved in unscrupulous behavior will be sought out, caught, and prosecuted at levels, unfortunately, never seen before in our Country,” Trump added.
He and his surrogates have cited top Democrats describing him as a “threat to democracy” as a reason two gunmen have targeted him since July 13. That post offered a prime example why Democrats have done so.
So far, what federal and local law enforcement officials contend was another attempt on his life on Sunday has not changed the tenor of the campaign. For his part, Trump at the town hall sought to spin the latest attempt as a positive statement about his term, saying: “Only consequential presidents get shot at.”
‘Losing our ass’
Unlike his last town hall-style event put on by his campaign, Trump took audience questions Tuesday.
He told a man who described himself as a third-generation auto worker who is employed in Michigan by Ford that “the biggest threat” to the state is that “you have countries stealing your business.”
“We’re losing our ass to Mexico,” Trump contended, adding that President Joe Biden has “just totally given up the ghost [to China]. … We’re going to turn it all around, and we’re going to do it through taxes and tariffs.”
Trump did not signal he intended to work with Congress on the issue, suggesting he would try doing so via executive action almost immediately after, if elected, taking office.
“In a period of 24 hours,” he claimed with his usual bravado, “we can change the trading of the whole world.”
‘Getting shot himself’
Trump for the second time in as many days offered a different account than local and state law enforcement officials about what happened as he golfed Sunday.
“This guy was all set, he was ready to do a number,” Trump said, before adding of the Secret Service agent who engaged the would-be assassin. “And there was no talk. He didn’t say, ‘Oh, hello. What are you doing here, please?’”
“And he ends up getting shot himself,” Trump said, disputing law enforcement officials who have said neither the agent nor Routh was hit. In fact, federal officials said Monday that Routh did not fire a shot.
The GOP nominee, who The Washington Post found uttered thousands of misstatements as president, also contradicted law enforcement when he said “they had a high-speed chase on the highway. They got him.”
Officers from the Martin County Sheriff’s Office did indeed “get him” on Interstate-95 northbound in Florida, but the sheriff, William Snyder, said Routh was traveling “at the speed of traffic” because he likely “thought he got away with it.”
Meantime, Trump echoed Biden, who said Monday that the Secret Service likely needs more resources, calling on Congress to act. But Trump did not make a similar plea of lawmakers as they try and hammer out a spending agreement with a pre-Election Day government shutdown deadline looming.
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